The UK has launched a new International Education Strategy framing education as a core pillar of its global engagement and economic growth objectives. The document provides a timely national update of a topic thoroughly explored in the recently published ACA – EAIE report on Mapping the Internationalisation Strategy Landscape across the EHEA (for more information, see ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, November 2025).

The UK strategy, which responds to global challenges and rising international demand for high-quality education, is built around three core ambitions:

• Increase the UK’s international standing through education;
• Sustainably recruit high-quality international students;
• Grow education exports to £40 billion per year by 2030;

 and has significant implications for the UK higher education sector.

First of all, it reaffirms the importance of international students to UK universities. The document calls for sustainable recruitment practices with a focus on high-quality and diversity, with the aim of reducing over-reliance on single countries and guaranteeing strong graduate outcomes and employability.

Along with student attraction, outward student mobility is considered a key factor to equip UK students with the skills needed to thrive in a globalised world. To this end, in addition to its re-association to the Erasmus+ Programme (for more information, see ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, December 2025), the country plans to leverage both global and bilateral mobility programmes, such as the Turing Scheme and the US-UK Fulbright Scholarship.

On top of traditional mobility, transnational education (TNE) is expected to help mitigate ‘brain drain’ while widening access to high-quality educational provision for students who may not be able to travel. The UK plans to adopt a whole-sector approach to support the creation of joint and dual degrees, overseas campuses, franchised programmes and online delivery.

Finally, the strategy places higher education institutions at the core of its global research, science and innovation agenda. Through strong public investment, the UK plans to support universities in their capacity of trusted international partners capable of attracting talent and providing solutions to global challenges.